Speed Skating Venues

About Speed Skating

Matt Dunham/ Associated Press

Speedskating, sometimes referred to long-track speedskating to distinguish it from short-track, is the sport that Eric Heiden and Bonnie Blair turned into an American highlight reel in the 1980s, winning medals in a discipline typically dominated by Europeans. The Dutch all but consider it their national sport, with races in Holland documented as far back as 1676.

Two skaters at a time race around a 400-meter oval, the clock determining the winner. Men compete at distances of 500, 1,000, 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000 meters and a team pursuit. The women race at all those lengths except 10,000, but they do have a 3,000-meter event. Men’s speed skating was part of the first Winter Olympics, in 1924 in Chamonix, France. The women made their debut at the 1960 Squaw Valley Games.

Athletes compete in pairs, skating counterclockwise around the oval and changing lanes once per lap to equalize the distance covered. The skater in the outside lane has the right of way at the crossover if the skaters arrive at the changeover point at the same time. Races are timed to a hundredth of a second.

The team pursuit was introduced at the 2006 Turin Games. Two teams of three athletes begin simultaneously on each side of the track. Team members take turns leading, with the other skaters drafting behind. The team completes the race when the final team member crosses the finish line. The competition consists of elimination rounds, leading to a final race.

Latest Speed Skating News

RICHMOND, British Columbia  The Dutch speedskating coach Gerard Kemkers was back on the ice Saturday for the Netherlands’ bronze medal bid in the men’s team pursuit, but even as he skated to and fro, barking splits and encouragement, he remained essentially stuck in one place.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia  For the first two weeks of these Winter Olympics, Apolo Ohno evaded crashes and made late charges and won two medals in his first two short track speedskating races. His fortunes changed Friday night, in the 500 meters, where Ohno artfully advanced to the final, at one point even balancing on one skate.

RICHMOND, British Columbia  The American women pulled off a miracle on ice Friday, eclipsing the world-record holders from Canada by five-hundredths of a second in a head-to-head quarterfinal race in the team speedskating pursuit to eliminate the Canadians.

The United States stunned speed skating powerhouse the Netherlands Friday to advance to the finals of the team pursuit. The Americans are guaranteed to finish with at least a silver medal, and Chad Hedrick will walk away with his fifth Olympic medal.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia  Of all the places in the world, Simon Cho’s speedskating ambitions led him here. He finds that amusing and symmetrical, because those ambitions started here, too, 14 years ago in a muddy field. Cho was born in South Korea and lived most of his 18 years in Maryland.

RICHMOND, British Columbia  The collapse of the Dutch coalition government over the question of extending the Netherlands’ military presence in Afghanistan was knocked off the front pages Wednesday by another catastrophe: the Dutch speedskating star Sven Kramer’s Olympic disqualification in his signature event, the 10,000 meters.